“Market Urbanism” refers to the synthesis of classical liberal economics and ethics (market), with an appreciation of the urban way of life and its benefits to society (urbanism). We advocate for the emergence of bottom up solutions to urban issues, as opposed to ones imposed from the top down.

Jeff Fong

Jeff graduated from San Jose State University in 2011 where he studied Politics and Economics. He spent two years working in financial services before joining a startup focused on urban transportation. Since then he has become increasingly interested in urban economics as well as transportation policy and spends much of his free time reading, writing, and researching.

[Editor's note--this is the inaugural article for a new blog that Jeff launched called Tech For Housing, where tech workers advocate for more housing in the Bay Area.]
San Francisco--For decades, every city in the Bay Area has restricted housing production. And for decades, the Bay Area has gone … [Read more...]

This post was inspired by Nolan Gray’s “Jane Jacobs’ Hayekian Critique of Urban Planning” and the discussion it recently sparked over at Strong Towns.
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In Jane Jacob’s Hayekian Critique of Urban Planning, Nolan Gray argues for the futility of trying to master plan something as complex as an … [Read more...]

Steve Randy Waldman posted some criticisms of the market urbanist position on Interfluidity. The post was interesting, though I took issue with a few specific points. The following are my responses.
Regulatory Authority as a Property RightThe customary property rights surrounding homeownership … [Read more...]

Cato recently kicked off an essay series they’re calling “What Can’t Private Governance Do?”. The series questions how far we can take private governance in replacing public institutions. The most recent essay by Mark Lutter questions where to draw the line between private and public in territorial … [Read more...]

Housing prices in San Francisco are obscene. And, in large part, that’s because the city hasn’t permitted enough new construction. But that’s not the entire story. For as hard as San Francisco has resisted development, the Peninsula cities have resisted it even more. And in so doing they’ve pushed … [Read more...]

Over at FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver and Rueben Fischer-Baum claim mass transit is Uber’s best friend. They use data from New York to show that Uber is most frequently used in areas with effective mass transit. They explain that residents in areas with poor access to mass transit are more likely … [Read more...]

There’s a proposal to place a moratorium on all market rate construction in the Mission District, one of San Francisco’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Needless to say the proposal has sparked a debate. And Dan Ancona’s Putting Market Fundamentalism On Hold is another rock hurled into that … [Read more...]